


Alone

by wingedcatninja



Series: Whumptober 2020 [8]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Abandonment, Blood, Dehydration, Exhaustion, F/M, Freezing, Panic Attack, Starvation, Whump, caged, physical injury, whumptober2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-08
Updated: 2020-10-08
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:35:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26897551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wingedcatninja/pseuds/wingedcatninja
Summary: The three of them are left locked in their cages for three days without food or water. Kat begins to panic that they have been abandoned to die.
Relationships: Dean Winchester/Original Female Character(s)
Series: Whumptober 2020 [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1947799
Kudos: 8
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	Alone

**Author's Note:**

> Whumptober 8th. Kat's POV. I apologize for nothing.

Dean’s hoarse mumble had been reduced to a soothing drone in her ear by the time the metal door to their prison scraped open again. Before her eyes had time to adjust to the light, she was unceremoniously ripped from Dean’s arms and thrown into her own cage. The cuffs dug painfully into the still-open wounds on her wrists when she braced herself, and she was unable to hold back a whimper.

The lock clicked shut and the two stunt demons left again, without a word. They took the camp lantern with them, leaving the room in complete darkness. Kat felt her eyes widen in a futile effort to take in any light at all. 

“Kat? Kat, are you ok?” She could hear the desperate worry in his voice.

“Define ‘ok’,” she said, her own voice cracking.

“Sammy?” 

“Yeah, I’m ok, Dean. Mostly,” she heard Sam reply.

In the dark, the rustle of fabric on metal seemed too loud when they all three attempted to get as comfortable as they were going to get. Kat sat in the corner closest to Dean, pulling her knees up and covering as much of herself with Sam’s giant t-shirt as she could. She could feel her muscles tensing against the cool air of the room. She tried to tell herself that it could have been worse.

Dean let out a heavy sigh, letting her know that he was close. She spent a few moments analyzing if that was good or bad since he was still out of reach. She decided it was good; at least she knew he was breathing. 

“Dean?” All she could manage was a broken whisper.

“I’m here, Princess,” Dean replied, sounding not much better.

“I’m so cold,” Kat said through teeth that were tightly clenched to avoid chattering.

“I know, babe. I wish I could hold you, keep you warm,” Dean whispered back. “On the bright side, I think it’s been long enough now that you should be able to sleep a bit if you can.”

“Yeah, if I can. You should too,” she stuttered through her shivering.

“We should all try to get some sleep,” Sam chimed in from the other side of her. “No telling when they’ll be back.”

They were all quiet for a while then. She could tell from the sound of his breathing when Sam was asleep. She could also tell that Dean was not. The darkness may prevent her from seeing anything, but she could hear him fidgeting, probably trying to find a position that did not hurt so much. She could relate. She would have told him to stop and just not move, but she was too busy trying to think warm thoughts. The cold metal all around her only made it worse. 

* * *

Next thing Kat knew, the room was dead quiet, aside from the slow, steady, breaths on either side of her. The guys had apparently managed to fall asleep after all. When she tried to move, she realized she must have slept as well from how stiff her body felt. It surprised her that she had been able to sleep despite her injuries and her cramped position. The shirt had at least helped keep some of her body heat in, warming her marginally. 

The room was still dark, not even any light seeping in around the door. And she was thirsty. Kat smacked her lips and tried to work some up some moisture in her mouth. She imagined a tall glass of ice water and felt the tears stinging her eyes. Who knew when she would see another glass of water again, if ever. She failed to hold back a sob at that. The sound caused a snort from Dean, and she could hear him moving. 

“Kat?” It was only a mumble, but in the dark, she heard him well enough.

“I’m ok, Dean. Go back to sleep,” she whispered, not wanting to wake Sam as well.

“...’kay.”

She sat as quietly as she could while she listened to Dean’s breaths. She wondered how he was able to sleep. He had been tortured as much as she had, cut all over, and deeper than she had been. Her cuts ached, some of the shallower ones itching as they scabbed over. She rubbed absently at a spot on her arm, trying not to scratch. Her thoughts started to feel fuzzy.

* * *

The next time Kat woke up it was to the whispered voices of Sam and Dean. They quieted when they heard her moving.

“Kat? How you feelin’, sweetheart?” It was Dean, of course.

She had to clear her throat a couple of times before she was able to speak.

“I was gonna say I’ve been worse, but I honestly don’t think I have,” she replied, her voice sounding marginally better.

“Yeah, I know what you mean,” Dean said with a huff. “Sammy’s doing great, considering.”

“Shut up,” she heard Sam shoot back, but without his usual bite. “We were trying to figure out how long we’ve been here. Any thoughts?”

“Uhm...not sure. Especially now we’ve been asleep. I know I’m really thirsty, so it’s gotta be at least a day,” Kat said.

“Yeah, that’s what we figured too, based on how hungry Dean is,” Sam replied.

Dean’s stomach chose that moment to gurgle loudly, which made Kat burst out into an almost hysterical fit of giggles.

“Hey, no fair,” Dean complained. “I can’t help it, I’m a growing boy.”

“Whatever, Dean,” Sam shot back.

Kat could hear the annoyance in his voice. She could not blame him. On the other hand, she would rather laugh than cry and she was right on the edge. 

“Maybe if you ask nicely, they’ll bring you a burger, Dean,” she giggled.

His only response was an indignant huff. The three of them went quiet then, each caught up in their own thoughts. Kat tried to estimate just how long they had been there, but ‘about a day’ was the closest she could get. Her head ached a bit, and she pulled her hands out from under the t-shirt to rub at her forehead. She decided it was too much effort to stay awake.

* * *

When she woke up again, Kat’s head was pounding and her mouth felt like someone had poured the entire Nevada desert in there. Her cuts ached less, but the slack was picked up by her stomach which had now started feeling empty. 

“Dean? Sam?” She kept her voice to a soft whisper, just in case the brothers were asleep. 

When there was no response, she leaned her forehead against the cold metal bars and tried to keep her mind occupied by listing every monster she knew about and the ways to kill them. Vaguely, she registered that she was feeling less cold, but the thought slipped away before she could grab onto it.

She was getting to the end of her list  _ (Wendigo, kill it with fire) _ when she heard Sam stir. She listened quietly to his huffed breaths and imagined he was working out. She wanted to tell him to stop, to conserve his energy, but the words never made it past her lips. At least he was keeping busy. Briefly, she considered attempting a few sit-ups but decided she was in too much pain to move just yet.

Kat drifted off again to the sound of Sam’s regular huffed breaths. The sound turned into a train in her dreams and she spent the whole time looking for something, opening door after door to empty compartments, never finding what she was looking for.

She woke with a start to more silence. Her eyes were open, but they might as well not have been. The darkness was starting to get to her, making her feel like she had been buried alive. 

“Dean?”

“Yeah, I’m here, babe,” came the immediate response.

“Ok, good. Sam?”

“He’s asleep, but he’s here too,” Dean assured her. “Darkness getting to you, huh?”

“Yeah, a bit,” she said. “Remember that hunt in Alabama three years ago? The ghoul that dragged me underground?”

“I remember,” Dean said.

“Kinda not so fond of small dark spaces since then,” Kat admitted.

“I know, babe. Try to focus on something else if you can,” Dean said, trying to help, as always. “Like, that time we hunted that spirit in D.C., remember that? And Atlantic City after?”

Kat could hear the smile in his voice. It was a good memory for her too. For a little while, she could almost picture the sights and sounds of Atlantic City; the casinos and bars they had visited, trying to cram as many into a single night as they could. 

“Yeah, I remember,” she told Dean.

They spent a while reminiscing, keeping both of their minds off their current situation. Until Dean’s voice started slurring, then dropping off when he fell asleep. She felt her own eyes drooping, her mind feeling sluggish; sure signs of low energy. It was no wonder, she thought. She could not remember how long it had been since she had any food or water. As she fell asleep, again, the thought flitted across her mind that perhaps the demons had left them to die, caged in this dark room.

Kat woke up in a panic from a dream where she had been trying to dig her way out of her own grave, but more dirt kept falling on top of her, filling her eyes and nose and mouth.

“Shh, Kat, baby, it’s ok, breathe, I’m here, sweetheart, it was just a dream,” Dean’s hushed words pulled her back to reality and she fought to control her breathing.

Once she had herself under control again, she rubbed her hands over her face, wincing when her fingers scraped over the small cuts there. Dean was still talking to her, and she shushed him gently.

“I’m ok, Dean. It was a bad dream, but I’m good now,” she told him and heard his deep sigh of relief.

“I hate this, Kat. I hate feeling so helpless,” he admitted in a barely audible whisper.

“I know. Me too,” she replied.

Her headache was worse if that was possible, and she felt like she wanted to vomit, but figured that was a combination of the pain and hunger. Her body was stiff from sitting in the same curled up position for so long, but she had no energy to move. It would hurt less if she just stayed still, she reasoned.

“Dean?”

“Yeah?”

“What if- what if they’re not coming back?” Kat avoided voicing the words that were in the back of her mind.

Dean was quiet for a long time; so long that she was starting to wonder if he had fallen asleep again.

“...they’ll be back,” he finally said.

Kat could tell that he was trying to sound confident, but she could also hear the uncertainty in his tone. It scared her almost more than the thought of dying. 

At that, the darkness seemed to become almost palpable, pressing against her from all directions at once, stealing the breath from her lungs. Kat gasped, struggling for air, 

“Kat! Listen to my voice, Kat, I’m here, I’m right here, you’re ok, you’re safe, please breathe, baby,” Dean rambled, struggling to stay calm. 

Kat desperately tried to slow her breath. Using Dean’s voice as her tether, she focused on taking slow, deep breaths. In, and out. In, and out. She pictured Dean’s face in her mind, the way he had looked at her right after their first kiss. The green of his eyes transformed to a mossy amber in the bright sunlight. Each freckle standing out in the light. Angel kisses, some people called them, she remembered. 

Slowly, her breathing calmed and she relaxed against the unyielding steel bars. 

“I’m ok, Dean,” she managed. “Thank you.”

“Dammit, Kat, don’t scare me like that,” Dean breathed out, relieved that the panic attack had been interrupted before it really took off. 

“Sorry, babe,” Kat said. She heard Sam moving around on the other side of her. “Sorry for waking you, Sam,” she added.

“Yeah, no, that’s-that’s fine, Kat. I’m just glad you’re ok, y’know,” Sam mumbled.

“Me too,” Kat whispered into the darkness. She felt the exhaustion pull at her, and decided to give in to it.


End file.
